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Of all of the candidates both Republican and Democrat (and including President Obama) only one, President Trump was not in bed with Silicon Valley and Tech comp

Of all of the candidates both Republican and Democrat (and including President Obama) only one, President Trump was not in bed with Silicon Valley and Tech companies attempting to depress American Wages and replace Americans with cheaper foreign imports. Even the University of California San Francisco (The UC system trains lots of computer scientists, IT workers) replaced its own IT workers with H1-B Visa imports. What is notable is the US newspapers including NYT and WaPo don't write about this issue much. The Guardian (and Breitbart) have been the most consistent sources of information. Thomas Frank had warned of the real reasons for Trump's rise staring in March 2016. Here is a July 2016 article after the BrExit vote that warned the Dems. Click on the link and you'll see Obama pictured with Zuckerberg. Zuckerberg famously want to depress American tech wages by having his own lobbying organization that tries to import more H1-B visa workers. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/jul/19/revenge-against-elites-americas-wake-up https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/jul/19/reveng... At Wednesday night’s GOP debate, Rubio was asked about his co-authorship of controversial legislation–- known as the I-Squared bill — that would triple the number of wage-depressing H-1B visas up to 195,000 per year. In Rubio’s home state of Florida, the Walt Disney Company used H-1Bs to lay off hundreds of American workers and force them to train their foreign replacements. Disney’s CEO has endorsed Rubio’s I-Squared bill. http://www.breitbart.com/2016-presidential-race/2015/10/30/h-1b-expert-marco-rubio-fakes-opposition-h-1b-outsourcing/ http://www.breitbart.com/2016-presidential-race/2015/10/30/h... President Obama even allowed spouses of H1-B to work, displacing and lowering wages of yet more American workers. The intent of H1-B is only for jobs for which there are no Americans available. There should be an independent commission that reviews each and every one of these applications. Frankly, it begs credulity that there are 65,000 STEM jobs that are so specialized that there are no Americans to fill the roles.

maxerickson 9y ago
That may all be true, still, H1-B's were not an important issue in the election.
- davidf18 9y ago
  H1-B not so much although Trump complained vociferously against Disney replacing US IT workers with imports. More significant was the displacement of US working class through free trade, and through illegal aliens. But in each case, the Republican contenders and the major Democratic contender ignored the job issues. Sanders was also consistent with Trump regarding working class jobs.
0xcafecafe 9y ago
>>President Obama even allowed spouses of H1-B to work, displacing and lowering wages of yet more American workers. You need to be more informed. Not any H1-B spouse is allowed to work. That provision was created as a bandaid fix to alleviate the problems of people (mostly Indian and Chinese) who have to endure a decade+ long wait to get a green card (due to the stupid EB country cap limits). While that wait continues, their dependents cannot work. By this provision, only spouses of workers who have a permanent residency petition approved but are not able file for a green card due to unavailability of numbers are able to apply. The estimated number of spouses expected to apply was around 179k out of which only about 37% ended up applying. In contrast, the US issues 860,000 green cards every year (non employment based) which by your argument should be displacing even more local workers. And not all spouses work in the software field. My wife works in healthcare and this provision was a Godsend for us since it has been 5 years and counting since my green card was applied for by my company. If this provision goes away or the immigration system does not improve for the better (reducing backlogs), we are seriously contemplating our future here.
- davidf18 9y ago
  I'm sorry for your personal suffering, but as a systemic issue, immigrants are taking jobs away from Americans. Whether it be in software, healthcare, or other professional job, Americans are being displaced. As for the number of Green cards, I can only take your word for it, but I'm guessing most of them are not displacing college graduates/ STEM/ etc. 179K * .37 is still > 65,000 jobs that Americans could have done filled by others and depressing wage conditions regardless of the field. Remember that most of the people in the US on H1-B are here because the law which states that there must not be any American capable of filling the job was violated. That is the law. The H1-B has been used by US firms many of which are very wealthy to try to drive down wage rates. That is the problem. If someone is here on H1-B according to the law where there is no American with the skill set (perhaps a PhD nuclear physicist that deals with machine learning and nuclear reactions) then that is a completely different matter. But any H1-B hired for almost any software development there are American that can do the job.
- mavelikara 9y ago
  Spouses of L and J visa holders are able to work; and as you said, 860K immigrants are added to the system every year. I don't quite understand the grief over spouses of H visa holders from India and China being allowed to work legally. The family, by then, have filed for a green card, made clear indication of wanting to immigrate to the country and are not allowed to do so only because of unfair per-country quota limits. As an aside, I hope HR 392 [1] passes. It eases out the per-country quota limits for skilled immigration over 5 years. It currently has 173 co-sponsors in the house. [1]: https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/house-bill/392 https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/house-bill/392

maxerickson 9y ago

That may all be true, still, H1-B's were not an important issue in the election.

davidf18 9y ago
H1-B not so much although Trump complained vociferously against Disney replacing US IT workers with imports. More significant was the displacement of US working class through free trade, and through illegal aliens. But in each case, the Republican contenders and the major Democratic contender ignored the job issues. Sanders was also consistent with Trump regarding working class jobs.

0xcafecafe 9y ago

>>President Obama even allowed spouses of H1-B to work, displacing and lowering wages of yet more American workers. You need to be more informed. Not any H1-B spouse is allowed to work. That provision was created as a bandaid fix to alleviate the problems of people (mostly Indian and Chinese) who have to endure a decade+ long wait to get a green card (due to the stupid EB country cap limits). While that wait continues, their dependents cannot work. By this provision, only spouses of workers who have a permanent residency petition approved but are not able file for a green card due to unavailability of numbers are able to apply. The estimated number of spouses expected to apply was around 179k out of which only about 37% ended up applying. In contrast, the US issues 860,000 green cards every year (non employment based) which by your argument should be displacing even more local workers. And not all spouses work in the software field. My wife works in healthcare and this provision was a Godsend for us since it has been 5 years and counting since my green card was applied for by my company. If this provision goes away or the immigration system does not improve for the better (reducing backlogs), we are seriously contemplating our future here.

davidf18 9y ago
I'm sorry for your personal suffering, but as a systemic issue, immigrants are taking jobs away from Americans. Whether it be in software, healthcare, or other professional job, Americans are being displaced. As for the number of Green cards, I can only take your word for it, but I'm guessing most of them are not displacing college graduates/ STEM/ etc. 179K * .37 is still > 65,000 jobs that Americans could have done filled by others and depressing wage conditions regardless of the field. Remember that most of the people in the US on H1-B are here because the law which states that there must not be any American capable of filling the job was violated. That is the law. The H1-B has been used by US firms many of which are very wealthy to try to drive down wage rates. That is the problem. If someone is here on H1-B according to the law where there is no American with the skill set (perhaps a PhD nuclear physicist that deals with machine learning and nuclear reactions) then that is a completely different matter. But any H1-B hired for almost any software development there are American that can do the job.
mavelikara 9y ago
Spouses of L and J visa holders are able to work; and as you said, 860K immigrants are added to the system every year. I don't quite understand the grief over spouses of H visa holders from India and China being allowed to work legally. The family, by then, have filed for a green card, made clear indication of wanting to immigrate to the country and are not allowed to do so only because of unfair per-country quota limits. As an aside, I hope HR 392 [1] passes. It eases out the per-country quota limits for skilled immigration over 5 years. It currently has 173 co-sponsors in the house. [1]: https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/house-bill/392 https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/house-bill/392